Pinky Lai
Pinky Lai (Hong Kong, born 20 March 1951) is an automotive designer, the first Chinese in the Car Design Profession. Currently still under contract with Porsche AG and in semi-retirement. He was Chief Designer responsible for the exterior designs of both Boxster 987 and 1st generation Cayman. He is also responsible for the Design of the complete model-line of 911 Carrera (996 series).
In 1972 he moved to Rome, where he later gained a BA in Industrial Design at the Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche. When studying he saw an advertisement from Ford of Germany for a car designer and in 1978 he ended up receiving a two-year full scholarship on transportation design at the RCA Royal College of Art in London.
In the Spring of 1980, he was declared the Winner of the John Ogier Memorial Design Bursary of the Royal Society of Arts.
After his graduation with a MA from RCA in 1980, he started working for Ford Werke in Cologne, Germany. In 1982/83 he went on a joint venture project to work in Ghia Studios (Italy) and Mazda in Japan where he worked on a specialty car program as a result of winning the internal competition. Overall he worked on the Sierra, Fiesta, Escort and Scorpio projects.
After returning to Germany he joined BMW in 1984 as a senior designer. He won the Design of E36 program (the BMW 3 Series). In 1989, He was invited by the president of R&D of Porsche AG to join the design team (Porsche Styling) as studio chief. Since then, he has worked on all the models from the factory, from the Boxster to the Cayman including the revolutionary 996, the first major departure from Ferdinand Alexander "Butzi" Porsche's original design for the 911 in four decades.
Between 1992 and 1995, every Saturday, he taught Design Sketching at the Art Center College of Design in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland.
Since 2004, he was appointed the Chief Designer for all external projects at Style Porsche, handling all Transportation Design for clients from Japan, Korea, China and all over Europe. Projects ranging from High Performance motor bike design to design face-lifting of an over 300 meters long cruise liner, and very much everything in between that moves.
Since 2012, he is the Founder and Design Director of Brainchild Design Group, Germany and Brainchild Design Consultants, Ltd., Hong Kong.
2012 – 2013 - Design Consultancy for a major Chinese car manufacturers on Brand Creation across the entire range of vehicles – from SUVs to limousine.
Invitation by a privately owned battery manufacturer to design an LEV (Light Electric Vehicle), currently preparing for application submission to the Hong Kong SAR government.
For The Venice Biennale 2015: help planning with the Italian-based Zorzi Foundation for an art exhibit of all Pinky’s car sketches from the past 40 years.
Residential building design consultancy project for a high-end Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hong Kong. An Autobiography of Pinky Lai: DRIVEN, How a Hong Kong Guy helped save Porsche.
2014 - Car sketches – to be on show inside the dramatic and hyper-glamorous new Jimmy Choo shoe store opening in Shanghai. An exhibition inside another exhibit.
Invitation by the Faculty of Architecture, to speak at Oklahoma State University, US. - Subject: Life Story of Pinky Lai and Car Design.
Other Speaker Events at the Hong Kong University, The Polytechnic, The Entrepreneurs´Organization, The Stanford University Alumni, The Columbia University Alumni, The Hong Kong Chinese University.
21 August 2015, Speaker Dialogue at the International Design Furniture Fair, Hong Kong.
Recipient of The DFA Lifetime Achievement Award 2015 of The Hong Kong Design Centre at the Gala Dinner on 4 December 2015 during the BODW 2015.
Speaker at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on 7th December 2015.
References & links
http://www.designnstyling.com/ http://brainchild-design-group.com/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pinky-Lai-News/227793590702526?ref=hl
